P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #381
Continuing to try LLM
my story 🚀
ChatGPT came through for me several times this week. Many of you have heard my casual gripes about LLMs letting me down. The gap between today’s capabilities and my expectations is wide. Yet, my drive to find valuable personal use-cases persists! Here are a few that worked for me recently:
I was reading an industry article (about Solar PV) and wanted a layer of contextual background. Copy/pasted a paragraph and had immediate answers to my questions. Only 3% worried about inaccuracies.
I wanted a new emoji for my company’s slack, so ChatGPT made me one in about 20 seconds after only 2 prompt iterations. I will probably do more of this!
Themed wordsmithing. On two occasions, I wanted to inject some fishing-related fun in my writing. I put ChatGPT on the job of theming an agenda’s headings (great success), and exploring options for fishing-related words that start with M (moderate success).
I wanted to tell my daughter the story of Atlantis. The LLM gave me a 6-year-old-appropriate version on the spot. “And who knows? Maybe one day, you’ll be the one to find Atlantis and share its magic with the world!”
fun facts 🙌
Executive compensation: the trend toward one-size-fits-all. “Since 2006, 24% of the variation in the distribution of CEO compensation across pay components — salary, bonus, stock awards, options, non-equity incentives, pensions, and perquisites — disappeared.” ~ learn more
When RAND made magic in Santa Monica. “RAND’s halcyon days lasted two decades, during which the corporation produced some of the most influential developments in science and American foreign policy. So how did it become just another think tank?” ~ learn more
Cybercrime groups restructuring after major takedowns. This reminds me of what happened in Chicago when the city demolished Cabrini-Green and a couple big gangs became a hundred smaller gangs. Also, more bad news: “Some of the newer gangs appeared to be considering threats of physical violence rather than just online intimidation, he said.” ~ learn more
oh, chicago 🏆
Chicago’s vanishing water tanks. “After the Great Fire of 1871, ordinances were passed requiring these tanks on top of warehouses, factories and public buildings. The law spawned a whole industry in water tank construction and maintenance.” ~ learn more
oh, austin 🤠
Mosquitos are the worst. “Five Austin-Travis County residents have tested positive for dengue fever, so far this year, after traveling internationally.” When I first read this I missed the “after traveling internationally” bit. I still hate Austin mosquitos though. ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ⚡
How Microsoft Copilot can avoid becoming the next Cortana. “Much as they would like you to forget, Copilot is not Microsoft’s first crack at a digital assistant. In fact, they’ve built two before this: Clippy and Cortana—the former of which we loved to hate and the latter of which we simply hated (or completely ignored).” ~ learn more
Select avg(Moby Dick) limit 2 sentences. “It’s not a SQL statement that would work today in a cloud data warehouse. But an LLM would understand it : summarize the book Moby Dick in two sentences.” ~ learn more
I prompted AI to turn various famous works of art/artists into first person video FPS games. This is cool. It’s a demo, of course, so don’t expect to be able to do the same thing any time soon. ~ learn more
better doing 🎯
Why you shouldn’t keep stuff under your bed. “The things we keep under our bed—suitcases, shoeboxes—are like dormant memories. They’re out of sight, but not out of mind. We know they exist. They live rent-free in our unconscious mind. They interfere with the important work our unconscious mind does when we’re asleep.” ~ learn more
to your health ⚕
Why I take 75 pills every day… and what they do. This is not my recommendation. Most days I take zero pills! However, this is what Peter Diamandis wrote. “My meds & supplement routine is built around addressing as many of these as possible. The 12 hallmarks include: Genomic Instability, Telomere Attrition, Epigenetic Alterations, Loss of Proteostasis, Deregulated Nutrient-Sensing, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Cellular Senescence, Stem Cell Exhaustion, Altered Intercellular Communication, Disabled Macroautophagy, Chronic Inflammation, and Dysbiosis... and more on these later.” ~ learn more
under the microscope 🔬
The first transmission from Science House. “We’re bringing a couple of aspiring scientists together, sticking ‘em in a house, giving ‘em some money and mentorship, and letting ‘em set sail. It’s kind of like a PhD program except it doesn’t give you clinical depression. The two inaugural Scholars of Science House are already publishing their work to the world. I’m excited to introduce them to you…” ~ learn more
big ideas 📚
Solar cells keep getting cheaper. FOB China prices are now under $0.05/watt for the most popular solar cells in the market. Lower prices open new markets, which drive more volume, which can lower prices further. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for this virtuous cycle! Note that solar project “soft costs” are not following this trend toward decline, so projects that require lots of labor and permitting and grid interconnects (especially in the US) are not yet benefiting. ~ learn more
Solar industry research data. “While residential hardware costs have varied over the past 10 years, soft costs (SG&A, permitting, inspection, interconnection and labor) have remained stubbornly high and have even increased, pushing the soft cost share to its highest point in years.” ~ learn more
staying thirsty 🚰
Work starts on Africa’s biggest desalination plant. “The project is part of a $14.3bn plan to insulate Morocco from the effects of climate change launched four years ago (see further reading).” ~ learn more